Anyone else own K712 and Q701?
What I'm hearing: both are great, and both are great for gaming or movies or music, but... I played several hours of CoD Ghosts today, swapping headphones between rounds, and I was having a hard time distinguishing between them. I had both of them hooked up to my Xbox360 as source, Turtle Beach DSS as surround processor and DAC, and FiiO E12 as amp, with all boosts and tweaks off.
Reading my notes, at first I felt that the bass was tighter on the K712 Pros while the Q701 actually had MORE bass "power" (background info: I've been enjoying my Q701's A LOT since buying them a year and a half ago), and the treble slightly smoother on the K712. After that initial impression however, I couldn't sense the difference anymore after I switched back, and things like virtual surround, footstep detail/separation, sound fatigue didn't seem to mark an appreciable contrast. I didn't feel there was more air on the Q701, nor warmer presentation on the K712. When the sun set and I started swapping the headphones without really looking to see which one I was putting on, I totally forgot which one I was currently wearing after a while (padded my Q701 headband, so they both disappear after a while). I did note that it was nice to be able to switch to a cool set of pads... lol.
A short background, I listened to the K712 exclusively for two and a half months, and then half a month ago I began using either AKG as they were in reach. During those first two months of learning the K712, I felt "Oh, I think I've gained a bit of Mids presence I was looking for, and the treble seems a little smoother. Yay!" However, I still felt the change was more akin to "tweak" than immediately obvious. Today was the first time I tested them both side-to-side, within auditory memory of eachother. I think I should be able to hear differences well, back when I used to play Violin I was able to tune the strings repeatedly to basically as good as my tuner (often could play both my tuned strings and the tuner at the same time, and not hear a beat), and even if my 27 year old ears don't have the range or are as good as they once were, I would not think my sense of tonality would change.
So, either my ears are not sensitive enough, my ears/brain got fatigued/burned out by the length of my testing session, or these headphones are really just a lot more comparable than contrasting considering their price difference. In a way, that's good, because I fell in love with the AKG house sound the first time I heard my Q's, but I had hoped to get more out of the K712.